American Winter Page #9

is this is the house

that he knows.

This is home.

OK. Here's Bulls-eye.

- Say, "Hi, Bulls-eye. "

- Hi, Bull's-eye.

Yay!

- Yay!

- I did it!

Yeah. Yeah.

We did it! Yay!

You did it. One more.

Tomorrow

they're going to auction off

my house, my 5 acres here.

I'm scared about

my situation right now,

but I'm also scared about

Geral's situation

as he gets older.

Come on, kitty-kitty.

Come on.

My hope was that

I could build something here,

pay it off; that way Geral would

have something to fall back on.

I got to be here to protect him,

or... make his life

as comfortable as... I can.

Hmm.

Yay! I did it!

Whoo! I did it!

Hey Gunner, look!

Our furniture got here!

Oh, my goodness.

Lookit, Gunner!

Yay!

Gunner and I got up

one Saturday morning and it was beautiful,

and I said, "We're not going

home till we find a place. "

This was the third place

we looked at.

Amy had to come do,

like, an inspection thingy

for Human Solutions, and then

she called me with...

less than 24 hours and said,

"You guys are approved.

You can move in.

Come get your keys. "

That day was... the heavens were

shining down upon us. Ha ha ha!

I'm so glad we have

a place here.

Oh, Gunner.

Are you happy?

Yeah, I'm happy.

We can still file bankruptcy

on the house, too.

And then what?

I don't know what.

Maybe it'd be better

you go to your mom's.

How could you say that?

I know she's not going

to put me up anything,

you know what I'm saying?

I'm not saying it to be

mean or anything like

that; I'm just thinking

about all the options

and we don't really have

that many options.

I can't even imagine

why you would say

move out of state.

It's crap.

- It's not crap.

- It is.

What's crap about it?

Realistically?

Realistically.

Dad already has 10 people

living in that house.

Mom has 5 people living

in her house.

It's not even

an option for me...

or our kids.

If it gets to the point

of where...

where we have no place to go

and we're going to end up

up on the fricking street...

you're gonna stay with me even

if we have to live in a tent?

- Mm-hmm.

- Really?

Mm-hmm. In the snow.

You're crazy.

Well, we're a family, right?

And families don't

just up and move

because things are bad.

I haven't left you in 9 years.

I don't think I'm

gonna do it now.

My dumb ass chose to stay.

I'm glad you did.

- Me, too.

- You didn't have to.

I know.

Hey.

I love you.

I love you, too.

How much?

Enough to stay and live

in a tent in the winter.

That's love.

- So I appreciate you coming in today.

- Mm-hmm.

You know, I told you during

that interview process

that there was a lot of candidates

that we were interviewing

and that it was

incredibly competitive.

- I'm prepared to offer you a job today.

- All right.

- That's the good news, OK?

- That's good.

Really, you're over-qualified

and I recognize that.

I wouldn't let you down.

If you tell me that

I'm getting the job,

- I'll work hard and wouldn't let you down.

- Well, I appreciate that.

I really think you'd be a

great fit to this company.

- So how about we start next week?

- All right. We'll do it.

- Welcome to Caldera.

- All right, all right.

- Thanks very much.

- Thank you. Thank you so much.

I finally found a job.

At my last job, I was

making about $22 an hour.

Yeah, and he's making,

like, half now.

Now I'm making

$13.50 an hour, and...

- It's a big blow.

- It is a big blow.

It's really hard.

Daddy's not going

to have as much as free time,

you know, 'cause he's

working part-time.

I'm working, but on weekends

I'll still take you out.

- Yes.

- Promise.

If we did

not have those resources,

I don't know what we

would have done.

I really don't.

Those resources are the only

thing that I think saved us.

Whee!

In this country, as profits

went up at businesses

and the economy was producing

more incomes of all

of the income groups,

the lowest income,

middle income, and upper income

all went up pretty much

the same rate.

Starting in the mid to late-1970s,

the wealthy shot up

and everybody else

leveled off or went down.

Businesses have had

record profits,

and what do we have for it?

We have middle class seeing

their incomes go down.

We have highest level

of poverty in the...

that we've ever had,

number of people who are poor.

That's not right.

And so, for me,

the American dream is you

work hard, play by the rules,

and there's opportunity for all;

that everyone gets to share

to some degree in the growth in

our economy, in our prosperity.

And we haven't had that.

And now, when the country

does better, it's going

to a select and privileged few.

We were talking about getting

a home, and now we're back to square one.

And now I don't even want

to talk about getting a home,

just talk about getting

on our feet.

I always wanted to raise

my kids in a home

'cause I never had it,

but it's just sad.

That dream is

just so far, just...

sad.

- Sorry, baby.

- It's OK.

I've never lived in a house.

She's never lived in a house.

She's always lived

in an apartment.

I still want that.

So...

I could hit

the lottery, you know?

I love you. Ha ha!

You never know.

Say, "Bye-bye, park. "

Bye-bye, park.

See you again soon.

Bye. See you soon.

I believe

our American dream has turned

into American nightmare

by falling for the lure

of sort of individual success

that we have forgotten

our ideals.

It's not just our safety net

that's falling apart,

it's the moral fiber,

and that's what happens

when we forget to have love

and compassion for one another.

"Happy Mother's Day, Mommy.

You are my mommy

and I am proud to say that.

I love you so much.

You are the best mommy ever. "

That is very, very cute.

Thanks for being there

for me in the hospital.

You're welcome.

Thank you, guys.

This is where we're

at, is people really looking for a safety net

that's frayed well beyond what

I think most people think.

Ohh!

Stimulus dollars,

a lot of that has now gone away,

and that's going to impact a lot

of social service agencies.

So you see need up, you see social

service agencies with less resources.

Your mark, set...

Go, Geral! Go, go, go!

So I think, for us,

the next year, year and a half

is going to be probably

even more challenging

than the last year and a half.

Good job, partner.

- Did really, really good, huh?

- Yeah.

- Were you really, really, really fast?

- Yeah.

The reason

why I want to be successful now

is because when I wake up,

I look around,

I don't like where I am. I don't

feel like I deserve this.

I feel like I deserve better.

Feel like my mom deserves better.

I was like,

"Mom, my whole 17 years,

I have always had to struggle,"

and she's like, "You know what?

I'm 40 years old and I

feel the same way. "

And I'm like, "Why?"

When people realize

that it's not

"every man for himself,"

that it truly is

"we're all better off

when we're all better off,"

you're going to have

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